Thursday, April 20th, in the year of our Lord 2017
By Adam McManus
Persecution in China Increases as the Church Grows
Every day Chinese Christians are increasingly being pressured by the state, under constant government surveillance, and even threatened with prison for singing “Jesus Loves Me”. The World View talked with Daniel Harris of International Christian Concern who said that China had relaxed a lot of religious control until now.
“I think that China relaxed a lot of control across the board economically. A lot of good came out of that, and that’s what had to happen economically. For the country to grow, for trade to happen.”
Yet, Harris said that opposition to Christianity is growing in China for a few reasons.
“I think they realized that all of a sudden Christianity was exploding. Religion was exploding. Some people are saying that more of a fourth of the population is pretty religious. It’s a very overt thing, but though it’s illegal, it’s been allowed to exist. And I think China is now realizing that it’s exploding; it’s getting out of control, and that intimidates them.”
Harris said that this opposition isn’t stopping Christ’s church.
“It’s spreading like wildfire. I don’t know if it can be stopped at this point.”
Democratic Congressional Candidate in Georgia Doesn’t Quite Win
On Tuesday, the Democrats almost clinched a political victory with 30-year-old Democrat Jon Ossoff in a special election in the conservative Atlanta, Georgia suburbs to replace Republican Congressman Tom Price whom Trump appointed as Health and Human Services Secretary.
Despite Democrats pouring millions of dollars into the race to embarrass the president, Ossoff earned less than 50 percent of the vote, the threshold needed to declare an outright victory. With 48.3 percent, Ossoff is headed to a runoff in June against Republican Karen Handel, a former Georgia secretary of state, reports the Washington Post.
Convicted Murderer Commits Suicide in Prison
Former New England Patriot and convicted killer Aaron Hernandez killed himself in prison Tuesday night, reports WBZ-TV.
The 27-year-old hanged himself with a bed sheet that he attached to his cell window.
Just five days ago, Hernandez broke down in tears in court as he was acquitted of murder charges in the shooting deaths of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado in July 2012.
Despite that good news for the former football player, Hernandez was still serving a life sentence for the murder of Odin Lloyd in June 2013.
Freedom From Religion Foundation Complains About Prayer on Police Station Wall
Being a cop is a tough job. Your life is on the line every day as you protect the innocent and get the bad guys.
That’s why a police station in Onalaska, Wisconsin posted this Police Officer’s Prayer on the wall. “Lord, I ask you to be with me in a very special way as I face the challenges that I must face each day. Please give to me compassion for the innocent I see. Help me protect and serve those who depend on me. And when duty calls to danger, walk closely by my side, instill in me great courage and be my strength and guide.”
But after the anti-God Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter of complaint, the police chief took it down.
Ohio State Representative Takes Flack for Comparing Planned Parenthood to Nazis
An Ohio legislator is facing a lot of criticism from abortion advocates this week after she compared the Planned Parenthood abortion business to Nazis, reports Life News.
Ohio State Rep. Candice Keller, a pro-life Republican, posted an image on her Facebook page Thursday showing Planned Parenthood’s logo and the words “One day we will look back at this” followed by a Nazi flag and the words “the same way we look back at this.”
The Huffington Post reports abortion supporters quickly began attacking Keller’s post, calling it “shameful” and urging her constituents to vote her out next election.
On Monday, Keller said she will never be sorry for defending the lives of babies in the womb.
Keller said, “Just as the Nazis took the lives of millions of innocent people and sold their valuables for profit, Planned Parenthood has done likewise as we have seen in hidden camera videos.”
Planned Parenthood has aborted about 6.8 million unborn babies in its 100-year history.
Proverbs 24:11 urges, “Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter.”
Fox News Ends “The O’Reilly Factor” After Increased Sexual Harassment Scandal
You will never hear this introduction again on Fox News.
“Caution. You are about to enter The No-Spin Zone. The Factor begins right now.”
Fox News has decided Bill O’Reilly has to go.
Despite the fact that O’Reilly was the country’s highest-rated cable-news host, the Murdochs have decided Bill O’Reilly’s 21-year run at Fox News will come to an end due to the mounting number of women coming forward with sexual harassment allegations against him.
An April 1st New York Times story revealed that during O’Reilly’s tenure at Fox News at least five women have been paid off to keep silent. That prompted 60 advertisers to pull their ads from “The O’Reilly Factor.”
Two questions remain. What will his severance package look like? O’Reilly recently signed a new multiyear contract worth more than $20 million per year. And secondly, who will replace him in the coveted 8:00pm central time slot? My vote is for Tucker Carlson who regularly debates leftists with clarity and humor.
Luke 12:2 declares, “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.”
Christian Singer Carman Faces Surgery to Remove Possibly Cancerous Tumor
Remember this song?
“The only hope for America is Jesus. The only hope for our country is Him. If we repent of our ways, stand firm and say, we need God in America again.”
That’s a song sung by Carman, the popular Christian artist, who fulfilled his dream of becoming a life coach before his upcoming surgery on April 28th to remove a possible cancerous tumor on his shoulder, reports the Christian Post.
The singer recently announced that after being in remission of cancer for the past few years, a recent tumor discovery on his shoulder is cause for concern.
Carman wrote on Facebook, “I have no clue what’s going to happen when I go under the knife or what they will find. But whatever it is, with God’s strength and your support I will get through it, overcome it, record this new music project and become a Life Coach. I’m like a big cat with 9 lives. I think I have 4 left.”
Pray for Jesus, the Great Physician, to heal Carman’s body.
ISIS Kills Police Officer in Attack on Eastern Orthodox Monastery
The Islamic State terror group killed one police officer and wounded four others in a foiled attack at St. Catherine’s Eastern Orthodox monastery in Sinai, Egypt, one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world, reports the Christian Post.
The monastery was built around the presumed location of Moses’ burning bush.
Reuters reported that the attack occurred at a police checkpoint about 800 meters away from the entrance to the monastery.
Islamic State gunmen opened fire from an elevated hilltop overlooking the checkpoint outside the monastery, and fled the scene following the shootout.
Radical jihadists previously carried out two bombings on Palm Sunday in churches in Alexandria and Tanta, killing 45 Christians, and vowed that more attacks are to come.
Pakistani Mob Hangs University Student for Alleged Blasphemy on Social Media
A Pakistani mob lynched a university student on April 14th for allegedly promoting ‘blasphemous’ content on social media, reports Christian Today. According to Pakistani laws, insulting Islam can incur the death penalty.
A Christian advocacy group called the Centre for Legal Aid has welcomed the Pakistani parliament’s plans to reform its controversial blasphemy laws.
11-Month-Old Baby Survives Being Shot in Teenage Fight
A young mother is now praising God after her 11-month-old daughter survived being shot along with five others after a fight broke out between teenagers at a church carnival in Birmingham, Alabama, reports the Christian Post.
Danetris Caves told WVTM 13 that she was celebrating her daughter Karleigh’s first Easter by attending the spring carnival hosted by the Cathedral of the Cross Church of God when gunfire erupted in the crowd of about 900 people.
Once they realized Karleigh had been shot in the foot she was rushed to a local hospital where the bullet was removed without surgery.
The five other shooting victims were teenagers who sustained non-life threatening injuries.
Bishop Phillip Wright, pastor of Cathedral of the Cross, condemned the shooting at his church and questioned why anyone would shoot a gun at a family event being held in a church parking lot.
President Trump Admits He Won’t Be Able to Pass Tax Reform by August
I love how Howard Kurtz of Fox News described tax reform. He said, “It may be the most maddeningly complicated Rubik’s cube that Washington tries to solve.”
President Donald Trump confessed that he wouldn’t be able to meet the goal of passing tax reform by August. After all, it took Ronald Reagan about two years.
He failed to repeal and replace ObamaCare which he may revisit, but it’s in limbo for the moment.
Trump’s campaign plan was to slash the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent, and lower the top individual rate from 39.6 percent to 33 percent, with fewer brackets. But, thus far, the Trump administration has not yet offered a tax reform bill.
Americans Have Less Trust That President Trump Will Keep His Promises
A growing majority of Americans no longer trust President Donald Trump to keep his promises, a new poll by Gallup has revealed.
The survey detailed the public’s declining faith in the president’s performance, with people less likely to view him as a ‘strong and decisive leader’ or as ‘honest and trustworthy’.
Only 36 percent of respondents believe the president is honest and trustworthy, down from 42 per cent in February.
Only 45 percent of Americans believe that Trump ‘keeps his promises’, down from 62 percent in February.
Russia Claims It Can Instantly Disable U.S. Navy
Russia has claimed it can disable the entire US Navy in one fell swoop using powerful electronic signal jamming, technology that could render planes, ships and missiles useless, reports The Sun.
The news comes after President Donald Trump dispatched the USS Carl Vinson, powered by nuclear reactors, carrying almost 100 aircraft and accompanied by destroyers, a cruiser, and a submarine to the Korean Peninsula.
And next week the USS Ronald Reagan and the USS Nimitz will arrive in the Sea of Japan.
Kansas Reports Drop in Abortions
Yesterday, the Kansas Department of Health & Environment reported a 2.4% drop in total Kansas abortions for 2016, compared to 2015.
6,810 babies were killed last year, a drop from 6,974 baby murders in 2015.
Fewer Kansas abortions were obtained by girls under age 16 (46 in 2016, 55 in 2015).
Some disturbing trends, however, continue:
- a 9.7% rise in gruesome, dismemberment method abortions, from 629 in 2015 up to 690 in 2016. The dismemberment method of killing a baby in the womb is deceptively labeled by abortion mills merely as “D&E” which stands for “Dilation & Evacuation.”
- an 8.7% jump in abortion by pills from 44.3% (3,092) in 2015 to 53% (3, 617) in 2016.
- a steady rise in repeat abortions; 65% of the total were not a first-time abortion, as opposed to 60%, ten years ago.
And that’s the World View in Five Minutes.